Northside Enrolls Record Kindergartners, To Hit 100,000 Students In Fall

As the Northside Independent School District ends its coordinated kindergarten registration, the district is expected to hit record enrollment for five year olds and finally top more than 100,000 students beginning next year.

When schools starts this fall the district will have 101,600 students.

For the past week the district has been encouraging parents to enroll their five year olds for the 2013-14 school year. Northside expects to enroll a record 7,700 kindergartners, which spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said it is a barometer for future years.

"These are new children to the system and when you have a record number of new children starting in kindergarten you can see how that is going to be impacting the numbers all through the next 12 years of their schooling," Gonzalez said.

By the year 2050, the district predicts that it will hit 150,000 students. In Northside’s 350-square mile district at least 30 percent to 40 percent of the land can still be developed into homes.

"Northwest Bexar County and West Bexar County are still the areas of the community that people want to move to and build their homes," Gonzalez added.

Northside has 110 schools and has several more being built soon. The district plans to holding a bond issue next year where a new high school is proposed near FM 471 and Tally Road.

The working name is Kallison Ranch Area high school; an already funded middle school will also occupy the property.

Related Content

Northside Independent School District has begun testing its radio frequency identification project on its buses. While the district has previously stressed that students are only tracked on the two campuses in the RFID pilot, the bus readers are not actively collecting data.

Out of its 850 buses, five special education buses in NISD now have the RFID readers installed. According to the district, that is to test functionality.

Northside Independent School District could see a bond election next year as district officials push off the need for one in 2013. Northside has seen about 3,000 additional students to the district ever year and the student population is now close to 100,000 students and 110 schools.